When looking at Hartford, you see what anyone sees: a bustling city, full of life. Cars and buses zoom down the streets, ignoring the mechanical green, yellow and red lights blinking at them. Horns are leaned on, tires screech, people walk at a brisk pace on the crowded sidewalk–everything you’d imagine a small city in the middle of Connecticut to be.
But this city holds a hidden gem–its history. Behind all the 100-story law offices and travel agencies are graves of founders, museums filled with art and science, and homes of famous historical figures. One in particular being the Mark Twain House.
This incredible, well-preserved house has been a marvel for years. It offers everything a visitor could want, from beauty to mystery. And it starts the moment you step through the door.
On my visit to this house, I was offered multiple opportunities, including writing in a variety of rooms and exploring what is otherwise left out of the tour. Regardless, I did get the typical experience, and I have little complaints.
The tour I went on took me through the entire house, starting with the foyer. I’m immediately greeted with the musty smell of a good book, the aroma coupling with the dim lights that create a vintage ambience. Dark red and brown tones enter your sight, almost overwhelming me with the aged vision. The curved stairs promise more to explore later, but the simplistic doorways call my attention to the other rooms of the first floor. (Tip: just as you’re about to ascend the staircase with the abnormally low banister, look up. It looks as though the house extends forever above you.)
The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, CT. Photo by Frank Grace.
The rooms are almost indescribable, yet so full of wordy potential–with each room exhibiting a different feel, it’s difficult to group together the wildly contrasting decoration. For instance, the cheerfully pink drawing room right of the foyer balances the dark foyer out, with childish innocence and sunlight providing a sunny feel to the room. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the dining room sits just through the curtained doorway of the drawing room. Its muted color palette matches with the library, replacing the innocence of the drawing room with an elegant, more mature theme. The elegance is definitely a constant throughout the house–perhaps most strongly emphasized on the first floor.
Heading upstairs, I find the bedrooms. Their soft white accents accompany the light green wallpapers in almost every room. It’s a cozy feeling, undermined only by the residue of the elegance found downstairs. One specific room offers another perspective of the house when it’s not doused in formal designs–the nursery, complete with a dollhouse, childish wallpaper, it all comes together in a more raw and homey feeling. Only for some, though. To me, it stands out as creepy and off-putting. However, that may just be because of the ghostly tales told in here by tour guides and visitors alike. The nursery’s breezy transparent residents are a favorite of the locals.
The Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT. Photo by Frank Grace.
The third and final floor awaits me at the top of the staircase. This floor focuses on the more historical aspect and not the ambience, rather than a healthy mix of both found on the lower two floors.
This floor holds a seemingly random selection of rooms, with Twain’s billiards room, a guest room, and George Griffin’s room, the family’s butler for 17 years. Despite the rooms being considered less important, they are far from sparsely furnished. The billiard room is littered with papers and books, what with it being the main spot Twain wrote. It also holds multiple games, the green pool table taking up the center of the room with a tempting promise of an eventful game. If I travel through the slanted doors on the right wall, I’ll enter the guest room, polished wood desks and floral print dominating most of the room.
Yellow seems to be the focus here, with yellow padding on the large bed’s head- and foot-board. The happy color is also visible on the vanity, pairing nicely with the dark wood. Even the ceiling has a bit of yellow in it, almost forming a rose gold with the combination of pink and yellow. And like many of the rooms in the house, this color theme does not carry through to the room close to it. George Griffin’s room, where the butler resided for 16 years, holds a more light green tone, the bed frame, dresser, and nightstand all boldly possessing this color. The room itself matches with this calm tone, the sunlight streaming in from the balcony doors setting a relaxing, summery feel.
I travel back down the hidden staircase accessible only from the third and first floor, built in the 1960s for safety purposes, to be greeted with the servants’ kitchen quarters. With lightly colored wood furniture and accents, wallpaper-less and white walls, and few decorations, it’s definitely the least decorated area of the house. Yellow shades block some of the sunlight, ensuring a warm yet still slightly ghostly setting. You are still in secret, small rooms, of course. It’s bound to be a tiny bit creepy.
The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, CT. Photo by Frank Grace.
The Mark Twain House is truly a pinnacle of historical architecture. It holds so much history and beauty, carrying the theme of elegance and uniqueness throughout (even if the color themes are not). The house earned the title of a hidden gem, and how it was earned is clear from the moment you step inside the foyer.
Being able to see the house in all its glory and understanding its background is an experience unlike any other. It’s family-friendly, historically significant, and overall an interesting subject to view and talk about. It definitely checks the box of an amazing summer destination.